Marseille & Nice

As everyone knows, half the fun of travelling is working out where you're going to go, looking at the neighbourhoods and then choosing where to stay. As I blogged about last week, I have been searching on Hotels.com and have decided to spend the second half of this week (and the weekend) in Marseille and Nice! Check out the pictures I've found online!!!

The weather in France has been amazing and we’ve decided that it would be awesome to go and see Marseille and Nice as a family, before the chaos of Christmas begins. As a bonus, none of us have visited either city before either, which means we can explore together and create our own little 'family traditions'.

One of my FAVOURITE things to do is stay in hotel - there's just some weird magic in it for me. I've always been excited about flights and hotels - so I’ve been scouring Hotels.com for some of the best hotels (plus, I get a discount with my code 8OFFAURENAE so it makes the rates super competitive for us. Feel free to use my code as it's open for everyone).

Because we’re a family of four, sometimes its hard for me to work out what hotels have the facilities to host us in the same room, or whether they will have to split us up. I got caught out with some website booking services in India where they said they could host us, and then ended up putting the kids on the other side of the hotel. My kids don’t feel comfortable about their own room being too far away so it's essential we're next door, or in the same room.

I found Hotels.com much easier to book on for us as a family - as you can select how many rooms, and then how many people (and their ages) at the very first step - so the hotel knows exactly what you’re after, and then you’re only shown results that work for what you actually want.

There’s some incredible deals at the moment and I’m also a Hotels.com member which means I get some ‘secret deals’ (some hotels are almost half price) and when I stay 10 nights, I get 1 night free. I've already accumulated 2 free nights so this trip away is SUPER affordable.

TIME TO BOOK!

MARSEILLE - Citadines Castellane

We decided to stay in the city centre of Marseille after researching showed me that this hotel is so close to so many things. Below is an excerpt from the Hotels.com site for this hotel and it sounds like it's in a spectacular location for us - plus they have a bedroom and separate sofa in an apartment style accommodation so, for a family, that works brilliantly. It's also quite well priced which means that we can splash a bit more money in Nice! (If you're keen to check it out, the link to the hotel is HERE)

WHAT TO DO AROUND CITADINES CASTELLANE

Notre-Dame de la Garde (30-minute walk)

La Vieille Charite (36-minute walk)

Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations (39-minute walk)

26th Centenary Park (4-minute walk)

Place Castellane (6-minute walk)

International Fair and Exhibition Center Marseille (16-minute walk)

Parc Chanot Convention and Exhibition Center (18-minute walk)

Velodrome Stadium (20-minute walk)

University of Aix-Marseille II (20-minute walk)

Marseille Opera House (21-minute walk).

After we spend 2 nights in Marseille, we figured we may as well drive over to Nice as we have come all the way to the South of France, we HAVE to check out Nice as well. There's a secret price on at the moment for a hotel called The Jay Hotel by HappyCulture which, I have to admit, sucked me in with the name. Anyone who has "HappyCulture" in their name has me on side.

This hotel is a bit more expensive, but the Hotels.com site has it rated (by previous guests) at 8.6 out of 10 which I think is a damn good ranking. They also show where people have ranked the highest marks and "Beach" and "Vibe" are coming in top so I am pretty excited to stay here (plus, look at the pictures below!!!). Again, the site has some handy advice about what's close by the hotel and what to do in the area, and it sounds like a great location...

WHAT TO DO AROUND THE JAY HOTEL

Place Massena (13-minute walk)

Nice Etoile Shopping Center (13-minute walk)

Nice Museum of Fine Arts (16-minute walk)

Cours Saleya (18-minute walk)

Nice Theatre (19-minute walk)

Nice Cathedral (19-minute walk)

Orthodox Cathedral (21-minute walk)

Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (21-minute walk)

Marc Chagall National Museum (26-minute walk)

Castle Park (26-minute walk)

So there you have it. I've finally booked a little adventure for us and I cant wait to tell you all about Marseille and Nice! Make sure you stay tuned on my Instagram HERE for live updates on what's good around the South of France, and any other useful tips I find out along the way.

As always - share your fun of planning a holiday with me and tag me in any of your plans, tips or questions so we can all share the excitement. REMEMBER - if you want a discount next time you book with Hotels.com, just use my discount code and after you book 10 nights, you'll also get one free (which means this trip has cost me LESS than $250!!!).